21 Jan 2024 Garand Picture of the Day - Cuban Army

[FlightRN]

In the mid-late 1950's, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista's government awarded a contract to Beretta. the author, Ruggero Pettinelli started in his book on Italian M1's, "Il Garand in Italia, 1951-1996," production was just over 5,000 rifles, but he clarified the serial number sequence began with 1000 and ended somewhere shy of 6000. This was a departure from other contracts that typically started at serial number "1." He could not determine in his research the reason behind this deviation.